I don’t know about you, but I’ve always “pshaw-ed” Sweetest Day as a Hallmark holiday. I figured it was a bit over halfway between Valentine’s Days and was an opportunity to capitalize on the love market. Mind you, I’ve never researched this and my feeling is more of a single woman’s Bah Humbug than anything based on fact.
Today I learned it actually was started back in 1921 and was literally all about the sweets. A group of Cleveland confectioners gave over 20,000 boxes of candy to the “poor, elderly and orphaned”.
Where did I get this information? From a press release! Chicago Chocolate Tours offers year round tours of chocolate shops and cafes and they sent out a reminder promoting them for this weekend. When I can learn something that removes a fairly jaded misconception – and involves chocolate – I’m happy to put the word out. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also a walking tour so you get to see some fantastic architecture and be guilt-free about all those confections you’ll be sampling.
A public tour is $40, and their Sweetest Day schedule is:
Thursday, 12:45 Loop
Friday, 12:45 Loop
Saturday, 9:45am, 12:45pm, & 3:45pm Gold Coast
Sunday, 1:45pm Gold Coast
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